Resistance to US overtures
BUENOS AIRES: The United States sought to woo Europe and Japan with freetrade deals yesterday to gain leverage in an escalating tariff war with China but its overtures faced stiff resistance from France at a G20 finance ministers’ meeting dominated by trade tensions.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at the gathering of the financial leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies in Buenos Aires that he was renewing President Donald Trump’s proposal that G7 allies drop trade barriers between them.
‘‘If Europe believes in free trade, we’re ready to sign a freetrade agreement,’’ Mnuchin said, adding that such a deal would require the elimination of tariffs, nontariff barriers and subsidies.
‘‘It has to be all three issues.’’ Trump has angered European allies by imposing import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium, causing the European Union to retaliate with similar amounts of tariffs on HarleyDavidson motorcycles, Kentucky bourbon and other products.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the European Union would not consider launching trade talks with the US unless Trump first withdrew the steel and aluminium tariffs and stood down on a car tariff threat.
‘‘We refuse to negotiate with a gun to our head,’’ Le Maire said on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.
Mnuchin is not formally meeting any Chinese officials at the G20 meeting, but said that was because his normal counterpart, top Chinese economic adviser Liu He, was not attending.